Mot
Mot is one of the central figures of The Banished Pantheon in the M.M.O. City of Heroes. It seeks to devour all mortal souls. It is an Incarnate, a being of inter-dimensional/divine power similar to the game's signature hero, Statesman, and signature villain, Lord Recluse, but as a full Incarnate, and one free and fully manifested, it is much, much grander in scale and power than even they. Tielekku vs the Banished Pantheon According to Circle of Thorns and Mu records the Goddess Tielekku was once the supreme ruler of the first gods. By the time the planet earth was created mortals began to worship the gods, endearing themselves to them. Tielekku took a liking to mortals but, like all deities saw them as weak and inferior, so she decided to change that. Tielekku invented the concept of magic and gave it to mortals. Other gods were outraged, as magic even if weak compared to the gods could break the set limitations that kept mortals as supplicants. The evil gods attacked Tielekku and those willing to stand by her. Continents were divided on multiple realities from the sheer onslaught of the war, but in the end the evil gods lost and Tielekku banished them to the netherworld, that existed between life and death. The war in combination with exorcising a Pantheon of evil gods drained Tielekku and she went into a deep sleep, leaving Ermeeth god of knowledge as ruler of the remaining gods. Regardless of the finer points of the divine politics at play, Tielekku fought the eviler gods who objected to mortals having magic and banished them. Mot was the one evil god, of those that opposed Tielekku, not to be banished. Mot was one of the crueler gods, but also very weak, so weak it was sealed away before the conflict even finished. Ironically what the Banished Pantheon fought against was what saved them, mortal magic. Diviners exploring the netherworld eventually encountered the Banished Pantheon and were so awe-struck to encounter actual gods that they worshipped them fully. As time went on more and more magi had similar experiences and ended up bowing down to the pantheon - they would pass down their rites to commune with them and thus the cult of The Banished Pantheon was formed. Dark Astoria The cult of The Banished Pantheon has existed for years but received a sudden boom in the 1910s when a man called Marcus Cole, later to be called Statesman, and his friend Stefan Richter, later Lord Recluse, opened Pandora's box after gaining their powers at the legendary Well of the Furies. Opening the box caused several butterfly effects across the world, among them a major increase in magical phenomena, and with it, the cult climbed from dozens worldwide to hundreds which soon all concentrated on Paragon City, home of the two men. The Banished Pantheon cult were not called to Paragon because of Marcus and Stefan, but rather because they sensed the greatest of their pantheon, Mot, buried just below the surface of a section of the city. The place was Astoria, a section of the city with a mass graveyard and with more and more dying daily with superhumans walking the world and in Paragon City especially. Astoria's Moth Cemetery kept growing faster and faster, shooting up a few years later with World War II as Paragon veterans were laid to rest back home. Mot had been eating the souls of the dead, which combined with the factors of the past two wars and Paragon becoming the Mecca of superpowers, was a massive amount. Mot had spent so long forgotten by the old gods, all of whom had moved on, that it had become stronger than any of its ethereal brethren. The cult heard their masters' calling though and spent the better part of the century attempting to uncover the last of their gods. In 2004 an alien invasion via The Rikti would occur, The Rikti War touched down in Paragon and Earth's fate was fought for in the massive town. During this time every able-bodied law enforcer, solider and meta-human gathered together to fight off the Rikti threat. The cult of The Banished Pantheon gathered in Astoria ready to take advantage of the Rikti War. The Banished Pantheon violated the cemetery and raised the corpses of the many war veterans as soldiers to unleash a zombie plague on Astoria. With the Rikti invasion to worry about, officials shut off Astoria, leaving it to the Pantheon, a few miracle survivors managed to get out even after the gates were closed but most died to the Banished Pantheon's city-sized army of zombies. The Banished Pantheon began to marinate their new section of the city in necromantic energies, with intent to merge it and the netherworld completely, thus was Astoria renamed as "Dark Astoria". The cult summoned avatars of their gods, creating totems for them to possess and even summoned the fierce lesser god Adamastor, yet still this was not enough. The Banished Pantheon's ultimate goal was to free Mot, who, dwelt just below the surface, waiting for its cult to scratch through the last of Tielekku's seals and be free again. Return In 2012 the game's Going Rogue edition came out and Dark Astoria was once more changed. Moth Cemetery irrupted, the ground splitting and then warping as Mot emerged. The Banished Pantheon cultists swarmed to their god, the ghosts of the civilians, still getting by in the literal ghost-town, were all drawn into Mot's gaping maw, barbed tentacles in-circled the remnants of the mausoleums, crushing most of them, and the grave statues were warped to the point they actually appeared to weep. Mot had returned. All Paragon's mystics marshaled their forces to contain the area, the good and the evil. The Mu had a shared vision of doom and warned Lord Recluse, who in turn issued orders for his military, Arachnos, to send his best mystics to the area. The Circle of Thorns, who had been combing the area for ghosts to experiment on for years, started setting up re-enforced portals to and from the Rogue Isles and Dark Astoria. The gang of Hmong ninja mystics, The Tsoo, started swarming the cemetery, putting up massive wards, just barely holding back Mot's power from escaping the cemetery walls. The ye-old secret society of wizards dedicated to using magic constructively, The Midnight Squad, arrived to arrange portals between Paragon City and Dark Astoria that only heroes can walk through. The society of militant magi, The Legacy Chain quickly arrive to fight off any Banished Pantheon that would try to seize the landing area. The Modern Arcane Guild of Investigation, M.A.G.I., quickly rallied all the registered magic origin superheroes they could find. With the outbreak a new group, the Talons of Vengeance, arrived on the scene. The Talons of Vengeance are a small circle of mutated fanatics, brought about by The Well of Furies power, but they can emotionally infect others and have spread to a sizeable army which seek to kill everyone who has created the imbalance of power in the world, to, as they see it, bring about ultimate justice. Heroes and Villains will find that the Talons intend to use Mot as a lure to destroy everyone who comes to fight/worship it, thus exacting vengeance upon those who have enough power to toy with the world. Mot only stirs slightly from the masses rumbling. Instead of bursting out, Mot gorges itself on the dead, revitalizing its strength. This redefined version of Dark Astoria becomes only accessible at level 50+ of the game - The highest official level being 50 and anything Incarnate levels from the Well of the Furies being the bonuses. When arriving players, hero AND villain must fight the freed dread god and its minions in order to prevent every single soul on the planet from being devoured. Dark Astoria Arc Heather Townshend Heroes and Villains will start off being introduced to the situation by former Astoria architect Heather Townshend, who shows that the Banished Pantheon rituals had finally plunged Dark Astoria into Mot's hands. Numerous wards from the Midnighters and Circle of Thorns keep the influence of Mot from spreading further out. Mot has a smaller avatar called The Sentinel of Mot, a still massive but smaller yet mobile version of Mot, in order to begin fighting Mot, the Sentinel needs to be dealt with first. While going after the Sentinel Talon of Vengeance make their introductions during the first phase of the operation, and the heroes and villains quickly find the new faction to deal with in between fighting Mot. Previous heroes and villains, with fates left unresolved show up. Two married Midnighters Kadbra Kill and Sigil show up, Sigil is cursed to die but Kadabra Kill is willing to do anything to save her. Kadbra goes to sacrifice himself to save her, though ultimately it is for nothing, as Kadabra was being influenced by Mot to only believe killing himself would save Sigil. On his own, Kadabra will die, but heroes/villains may put in the effort to either save him, or get him and Sigil both dead, but whatever Kadbra-Kill and Sigil's fate, the influence of Mot is first witnessed with the troubled magi. Mu'Vorkan The real emotional influence of Mot is witnessed when meeting with the supervillain Scirocco and his side kick Ice Mistral. Scirocco was a middle-eastern freedom-fighter until he received his powers, he uncovered an ancient sword which gave him control over the winds but in so doing was also cursed by it so his every attempt to use it for what he wanted backfired; The curse itself backfired assuming anyone who stole it would be evil, but Scirocco intend to use the blade for good and so ended up doing nothing but evil. Scirocco had pledged himself to serve Lord Recluse as he could not do good anyway and at least Lord Recluse represented order among the forces of evil. Ice Mistral was a formally chosen member of the same order that Scirocco's power was supposed to be passed down in, but she could not take the discipline needed and went rogue, Scirocco found her and has been training the wild elemental ever since, in an effort to indirectly help the forces of good by curtailing her rage. Scirocco is the head of the Mu mystics of Arachnos and Lord Recluse's main magical researcher so he was dispatched to Dark Astoria along with Ice Mistral and one of the senior Mu, Mu'Vorkan. Mu'Vorkan recruits volunteer heroes and villains to join with them in their efforts and does research on The Sentinel of Mot, while Scirocco, Ice Mistral and the Hero/Villain are fighting off the Banished Pantheon and Talons of Vengeance. Mu'Vorkan finds that Mot was fought by a man in the 1800s, which is news to everyone as the first attempt of the Banished Pantheon recorded was in 1953. While investigating the connection, Scirocco goes off, telling Ice Mistral and Mu'Vorkan to stay behind, but as later discovered Scirocco is intending to feed himself to Mot through The Sentinel, in a small remote cave. Mu'Vorkan scrambles to organize a rescue plan of his superior but Ice Mistral rushes off to do it herself the second the two piece together what Scirocco is planning to do. The Hero/Villain will arrive in time to see Scirocco ready to offer himself to Mot, consumed by the mounting depression of his station as a villain, egged on by Mot. At the last moment Ice Mistral comes in, in an attempt to snap Scirocco out of Mot's influence, but with Scirocco's depression an ongoing issue, only indulged due to Mot, Ice Mistral sees there is only one way to break Scirocco's crippling depression... to get him angry; Ice Mistral reveals she never followed Scirocco out of respect as he thought, but out of love, and in an effort to save him, feeds herself to Mot instead. The Sentinel of Mot takes Ice Mistral's soul as she is far eviler than Scircocco, if less powerful. Scirocco is instantly snapped out of his depression and swears to destroy Mot once and for all, joining the Hero/Villain as they fight The Sentinel. The Sentinel states before it dies, that Mot's power will reform it in mere moments at its base. Scirocco assures The Hero/Villain and Mu'Vorkan that Mot will no longer have any influence over him and that he will not be leaving Dark Astoria until Ice Mistral's soul is recovered. For the time though, Scirocco leaves the cave to recover and unlock his full powers. Max A man named Max, had been saved by Mu'Vorkan and knows the Hero/Villain is trying to beat Mot. Max reveals he is a member of the anti-superhuman fanatics The Malta Operatives, but stresses he was more of a political saboteur than field-man. Max wants to cut off the Talons of Vengeance who are converting the Malta Operative's allies, The Knives of Artemis, an all-female mercenary group, into Talons to swell their ranks. Furthermore, Max has information on others who could make matters in Dark Astoria far worse. Mot's presence attracted the attention of Incarnates of other dimensions such as Reichsman and Tyrant, the Marcus Coles of alternate realities, both of which also discovered the Well of the Furies and became Incarnates. Reichsman became a Nazi rather than fighting them in World War II and Tyrant, or as he prefers "Emperor Cole", decided to keep drinking of the Well of the Furies and went mad with power - taking over his version of earth rather than simply defending it. Max is mostly concerned with making sure Reichsman and The 5th Column neo-Nazis do not make things worse, with Reichsman looking to use his station as an Incarnate to absorb Mot's power. Tyrant's rogue ghost - Diabolique had gone to Dark Astoria to investigate Mot. Diabolique used to serve Cole, who holds an amulet that binds her. But while investigating Mot, Diabolique agrees to team up with Mot once it frees her from Cole's service. Diabolique is exposed as the one who brought the Talons of Vengeance forth in the first place, summoning them in order to assassinate their leaders and take over a second Incarnate source - meaning even the Talons of Vengeance, so called Incarnate manifestations of divine vengeance, were just pawns in Mot's scheme to attract more souls to it. Reichsman is not arrested, as he had been in previous arcs, but killed to prevent the 5th Column from ever attaining Incarnate power again. The Malta lose a great many Knives of Artemis but manage to stop their source, The Talons of Vengeance, from becoming total puppets of Mot and Diabolique is defeated, though as a ghost she will reform later. Praetor Megan Duncan AKA Dominatrix, granddaughter of Tyrant and one of his generals, was sent with a genetic clone of the Emperor named Olympian 29 to find and rebind Diabolique. Max vanishes quickly after business is concluded, as is the way of Malta but leaves the contact information for Dominatrix. Praetor Duncan Duncan is concerned about finishing off matters with Diabolique. Though Cole also wants a loose Incarnate like Mot returned to the Well of the Furies, and by extension added to his power, he is mainly concerned with either rebinding or destroying Diabolique. Megan has been given authority to stop Diabolique anyway she can and reaches out to the Hero/Villain to put an end to the rogue ghost. Over the course of the effort, Diabolique is exposed not as a puppet of Mot but rather is intentionally helping it in order to be part of the greatest force of undeath ever to exist. Though prevented from taking over all the Talons of Vengeance at once, Diabolique can still warp them individually and is placing all the Talons she comes across under her and Mot's thrall. Scirocco will be found, marshaling his powers, though not quite at their peak, he will temporarily join to foil Diabolique. Losing Diabolique had put Duncan's station in jeopardy. Diabolique/Mot strike at Praetor Duncan herself. Praetor Duncan had framed her mother as a traitor and killed her in order to usurp both her mother's station and her grandfather's love for her. With her title as Praetor in danger of being removed Duncan's entire life up to that point had been for nothing, including framing and killing her mother. Mot's influences takes hold of Duncan just as it had Scirocco - with her feelings of depression being quite real and brought to the surface. Megan had been borderline sociopathic, but with Mot forcing her to face all she had done her feelings finally need to be faced and Diabolique is there to steal her soul in her time of weakness. Olympian 29 dies defending Duncan and Scirocco helps hold off The Sentinel of Mot, saving Duncan. Though Duncan has been emotionally transformed by Mot's influence she is freed from the immediate crippling depression and she presses a final attack against Diabolique. To make sure Diabolique dies for good, she is fed to Mot. But over the course of the fight the Sentinel of Mot is heard claiming that it knew the Hero/Villain. Ajax II, a villain-turned-would-be hero, informs the Hero/Villain that a man he is working for has been researching Mot behind the scenes and that the key to removing the Sentinel, and thus getting to Mot itself, lies in Cimerora - an ancient Greek city encounter in a previous time-travel arc. Just before leaving to Cimerora, the player, will be able to see a flash to Duncan's point of view - revealing a newly empowered version of Diabolique. Diabolique states she was not simply eaten by Mot, she was reborn as an avatar of it and that once she finishes gestating within Mot she will return with the full power of Mot behind her. Sister Solaris Sister Solaris is/was an oracle within the city of Cimerora, formally encountered in a previous arc to save the land from a traitor named Romulus Augustus. Romulus had met with Nictus - interplanetary aliens who teleport from planet to planet, possessing life forms and adding their forms to their collective memory but only able to keep possessing willing creatures. Romulus had willingly indulged the Nictus to get the power to overthrow his commander, the leader of the strike force against him, Imperious. Solaris says Imperious was about to send their best soldier and previous ally/contact, commander Marcus Valerius, to hunt Romulus down but that she had stopped them when she had a vision that the Hero/Villain would arrive in need of Cimerora's best warriors to help seal an ancient evil god. Explaining the situation to Solaris, confirms her vision and she says a spirit had wanted to see the Heroes/Villains when they arrived and it was waiting for them at the burial site of The Idol of Mot. Following up on Solaris's words confirms both the existence of the Idol and that the man Ajax was working for had been there and was in fact the spirit who had telepathically contacted Solaris. The mysterious man is revealed to be Dream Doctor, a legendary wizard who founded the Midnight-Squad but disappeared years prior to travel to combat the Circle of Thorns in what he called "The Dream Space" (a variation on the Astral Plane that existed outside normal time). Dream Doctor explains who he is and that he had remained hidden for so long when he discovered the time-traveling nexus of Ouroboros. Ouroboros had prevented him from finishing off a space god called Rularu, as well as numerous other alterations to the timenline that kept Dream Doctor from returning to normal time and being subject to them again. Among the many things Dream Doctor had observed from The Dream Space was Mot. Dream Doctor could only act indirectly while in The Dream Space and had dropped letters on each story-arc involving time-travel to warn time-travelers not to trust Ouroboros when they made contact, despite seeming allies. The Dream Doctor states that the Idol of Mot is nearby in Cimerora and that is where Mot was sealed all those years. Dream Doctor had called the Hero/Villain there to recover the Idol of Mot and take it to where Paragon City and Astoria would one day be founded. The Idol cannot be destroyed and numerous people had died or gone mad fighting off Mot when ever it had gotten strong enough to escape the Idol's binding. Mot eats all death, including its own, so killing it only gave Mot the power to begin resurrecting itself again, buying a few thousand years before it absorbed enough other deaths surrounding the Idol's resting place, but still assuring it would return. Dream Doctor says he has ran all the possibilities and the only place where Mot can prevent from continuing the process was Astoria, so the Hero/Villain needs to, and obviously does, facility transfer of the Idol to Paragon City's future site. Just touching the Idol will allow Mot to communicate with the Player briefly and try to play mind games with them, but the exposure will also make the Player immune to further soul-manipulations by Mot in the future. Someone will need to take the Idol to Astoria for them, but being immune to Mot, the Player can get close enough to fight it. Dream Doctor's ultimate goal once immune is for the Player to summon Tielekku herself, before Mot. With the Idol in hand, the Hero/Villain, takes the Idol and returns to Sister Solaris to tell her the plan. Mot's voice torments the Hero/Villain for the rest of the time working for Sister Solaris, interrupting dialog but only audible to the Player. Solaris calls a meeting between her, Imperious, Daedalus, Sister Airlia. Daedalus is a brilliant inventor and contact in Cimerora for heroes and Sister Airlia is an amoral but ultimately loyal seer acting as the villain contact in Cimerora. The four come to the conclusion Marcus, as their truest warrior will have both the fortitude to take the trip, and to resist the Idol's influence. Even as Solaris speaks, Mot's voice overlaps hers to try to play with the Hero/Villain's mind. The Talons of Vengeance arrive to smite those conspiring to move the power of a sealed god. The Hero/Villain will stop the Talons and save Imperious, and his people as well as Marcus Vareirus personally. Marcus accepts the task in gratitude. Airlia and Solaris have a vision though, the Talon of Vengeance are building an army off of Romulus's remaining soldiers and are planning to seize Cimerora before Marcus can recover from his wounds and leave. Romulus needs to be dealt with once and for all in order to enact the plan to stop Mot. Imperious, Solaris, Airlia and Daedalus all gather with what few men remain after the attack to defend Cimerora. Romulus has given into the Nictus and has been completely overtaken by his power-lust. The final assault on Romulus is won, and the mad traitor is killed once and for all, with the Talons of Vengeance destroyed (at least in Cimerora's era) allowing Marcus to leave with the Idol of Mot. Handing the Idol to Marus for transport, the voice of Mot finally ceases but begins tormenting Marcus instead, who while shaken, still intends to preform his duty. Sister Solaris award the Hero/Villain a medallion of glory with Cimerora's crest on it in gratitude then encourages them to return to the present with their new immunity to Mot's power. Dream Doctor Once back in Dark Astoria, Dream Doctor telepathically communicates to organize the final stages against Mot. Dream Doctor's shapeshifting ally, the villain Protean, has found two pieces of information, one about the Tsoo and the other about the main leaders of the Talon's of Vengeance. The Tsoo leader, Tub-Ci, has been forging a blade called "The God Killer Sword", it holds the power the Tsoo have been building up for years. Tub-Ci also has had a ritual to summon Tielekku, intending to summon the goddess and kill her then use her stolen power to slay Mot. The Tsoo use magic ink in their gang-tattos that empowers them with will of their ancestors, but this sensitivity to the spirit world was also making the Tsoo, Tub-Ci included, sensitive to Mot. Defeating Tub-Ci and taking his blade along with the ritual to summon Tielekku allows Dream Doctor to reason with him while he recovers. The Talons of Vengeance need to be dealt with as well, as they otherwise will keep interfering. Protean has discovered the location of the matrons of the Talons, the Mother Kereses. After dealing with the Mother Kereses, the Talons go into full retreat across the world - ultimately serving the purpose though of potentially acting as pawns for Mot any further. With all other foes dealt with Dream Doctor gathers his allies and preforms the summoning. Scirocco, Protean, Ajax and a newly at calm Tub-Ci all show up to aid in the ritual. The summoning is successful and Tielekku finally returns. Tielekku says she senses a conscience among Mot's minions coming from its very avatar, The Sentinel of Mot. With Dream Doctor's briefing of the situation to her Tielekku leads the charge against Mot, but as it turns out, Mot had been counting on the attack the whole thing. Tielekku is in a weak state following her return from spirit sleep and Mot seizes on the opportunity to devour her, along with Tub-Ci. Protean calls off the partnership and runs away to save his own neck - leaving only the Hero/Villain, Scirocco, a weakened Ajax and Dream Doctor. Dream Doctor thought that Mot had been influencing Tub-Ci to get him to kill Tielekku and remove her as an obstacle, but he sees Mot had planned on devouring Tielekku whole all along to exact vengeance for the Pantheon and absorb her power for itself. At a lose Dream Doctor decides to get stronger allies in The Vanguard - planetary defense forces, originally founded to deal with alien attacks. During the meeting The Sentinel attacks. Though fought off, The Vanguard leaders Lady Grey and Dark Watcher, psychically and atomically scan The Sentinel of Mot during the attack, revealing there is a human inside or it was once a human. The Vanguard do not allow anything that attacks them to get away and contain The Sentinel rather than let it die and return to Mot. With the new information Dream Doctor tells the Hero/Villain they need to speak with The Sentinel of Mot. Speaking to The Sentinel reveals it is Marcus Valerius. Marcus's mind has been twisted by Mot. Though he made it to Astoria's future site, the years spent guarding the Idol of Mot with the Undead Incarnate speaking to him constantly allowed Mot to convince him he had sacrificed his life guarding it for nothing. Attempting to talk with The Sentinel is for naught, as it is too twisted by years of Mot's conditioning. However, Sentinel is swayed once the Hero/Villain hands over the Cimeroran medallion of glory. Marcus's old mind set comes pouring back. Reminded of who he was, Marcus agrees to help defeat Mot. He tells the Hero/Villain that the souls within Mot do not fade right away and it uses their presence to add their power to its own as they slowly devolve. With Marcus, the Hero/Villain can get close to Mot. A new plan is formed, going into Mot while still alive. All of the previous heroes, villains, anti-villains and all the characters from previous story arcs show up for the final assault on Mot. Everyone from small-town mentor figures to signature Heroes and Arch-Villains arrive to hold back The Banished Pantheon, while the Hero/Villain march straight into Mot's mouth alive and immune to it. Inside Mot the Hero/Villain will find the disembodied souls of all those Mot has devoured. The Hero/Villain cannot be absorbed into Mot but it still tries to bind them by corrupting them. Having an Incarnate level gives the Hero/Villain the strength to resist the corruption and break free of Mot's spirit restraints, after which they proceed to use the God Killer to cut the souls of Mot free. Mot no longer has the Sentinel but with Tielekku about to be freed it manifests all of its will into a pseudo avatar - stronger than The Sentinel of Mot. With a final blow struck against Mot by the God Killer it begins to die, but feasts on itself. Once the Embodiment of Mot is destroyed the Hero/Villain will free Tielekku first and all the souls still within Mot. Tielekku puts a barrier around Mot, powered by the ley-lines bellow Astoria. The barrier is not to contain Mot but prevent souls from reaching it. Mot cannot be destroyed as it eats all death even its own. But with no souls able to be absorbed all Mot can do within the barrier is continue to eat its own death, absorbing its own pain, killing itself, reviving from the pain which it then devours and repeats the process - caught in an eternal feed-backloop of its own pain and hatred. As Tielekku looks on at her defeated foe the Hero/Villain can choose to either bid her farewell or stab her with the God Killer sword before it loses the last of its power. Either Teilekku will fade back to the spirit world another for thousand years to recover or leave of her own accord to recuperate and leave the mortal world to its own business. Which ever outcome occurs Mot is eternally bound by its own hunger, but one factor remains. Though Mot itself cannot act Diabolique would soon absorb its power, eating its soul as Mot had eaten others - becoming the new Incarnate of Undeath. Gallery Mot looks down on it's meal.jpg|Mot looking down on living souls to devour. Mot to scale (B1bl1kal & Mesektet).jpg|Mot's gapping mouth as compared to standard players. Mot to scale, far off.jpg|Mot's full-scale compared to normal players. Trivia *Diabolique would use the arc as a basis to become an Incarnate for her own Incarnate trial Dilemma Diabolique in which heroes/villains must finish Diabolique off once and for all. *According to Circle of Thorns lore Tielekku willingly appointed Ermeeth as her successor. According to the Mu, Ermeeth believed only a select few mortals should have magic but did not fight her and instead fled into the sea and so was not banished. Ermeeth is the central deity of The Circle of Thorns, while their ancient foes, the Mu, claim their central goddess, Hequat, was the right-hand of Tielekku so both accounts are biased. *Villain, Harry Frost, grand-boss of The Family is encountered in the final assault on Mot as one of the many arch-villains making up the attack. Frost was thought by authorities to be dead with the Family controlled by lesser lieutenants for years. *Dark Astoria's rebirth was used to tie-up numerous plot threads left open for years such as Scirocco and Ajax's desires to become heroes, the whereabouts of Protean the man who killed the family of signature hero, Manitcore, kill Reichsman rather than leaving him in cryogenic storage, execute Romulus Augustus for his crimes angainst Cimerora and reveal Tielekku and Mot, two gods important to the Circle of Thorns, Mu and Banished Pantheon. *Tub-Ci had been mentioned long ago but never seen until the Dark Astoria arc, additionally the Tsoo were initially presented as triad-style gangsters with magical tatoos and nothing more. The battle against Mot gives the Tsoo a central motivation for all they had done - the desire to stop Mot, poisoned by their resentment at doing so alone. *Dream Doctor had been mentioned in numerous pieces of lore prior to the arc with no indication what happened to him after he left for Dream Space. Category:Deities Category:Death Gods Category:Collector of Souls Category:Destroyers Category:City of Heroes Villains Category:Suicidal Category:Science Fantasy Villains Category:Video Game Villains Category:Destroyer of Innocence Category:Brainwashers Category:Bond Destroyers Category:Mongers Category:Necromancers Category:Giant Category:Mind-Breakers Category:Lovecraftian Horrors Category:Predator Category:Psychological Abusers Category:Immortals Category:Imprisoned Category:Revived Category:Undead Category:Genderless Category:Chaotic Evil